FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | 25 August 2025

Naval Documents of the American Revolution Welcomes Two New Board Members, Expanding International Scope

The Naval Documents of the American Revolution (NDAR) project is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Deborah Hamer, Executive Director of the New Netherland Institute, and Dr. Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Professor of History, French and Italian, and Law at the University of Southern California, to its Advisory Board.

Dr. Hamer brings deep expertise in Dutch history and a strong record of leadership in historical scholarship and public engagement. At the New Netherland Institute, she has advanced transatlantic and multilingual research, outreach, and partnerships that connect North America’s colonial past to global contexts.

Dr. Perl-Rosenthal is a leading historian of the Atlantic world, specializing in the political and cultural histories of the eighteenth century. His scholarship, which crosses boundaries of language and law, situates the American Revolution within a broader international framework, with particular attention to Franco-American relations and the global reach of early American history.

Their appointments reflect NDAR’s commitment to exploring the American Revolution as a global conflict—one that played out not only in the Atlantic but across empires, languages, and legal systems. “We are thrilled to welcome Deborah Hamer and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal to the NDAR board,” said Christopher F. Minty, Project Director and Managing Editor of NDAR. “Their expertise underscores the international focus of our work and will help guide our efforts to highlight the Revolution’s global dimensions through documentary editing and digital scholarship.”

The Naval Documents of the American Revolution project, based at the University of Virginia, is producing an expansive digital edition of documents that illuminate the maritime dimensions of the Revolutionary War. By recovering and publishing records from Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and beyond, NDAR aims to provide scholars, students, and the public with access to the Revolution as an international story.